God, who is all Fulness in himself, and the Height of all Perfection, cannot augment or add any HcwtbeNan* Thing to himself internally; but his Name of God may be may be augmented and increased by the tncreasedBlessing and Praise we attribute to his exterior Works: Which Praise, seeing we cannot incorporate it in him, forasmuch as he can have no Accession of Good, we attribute to his Name; which is the Part out of him that is nearest to us. Thus is it, that to God alone Glory and Honour appertain; and there is nothing so remote from Reason, as that we should go in Quest of it for ourselves; for being Indigent and Necessitous within, our Essence being imperfect, and having continual Need of Melioration, 'tis for that we ought to labour: We are all hollow and empty; 'tis not with Wind and Voice that we are to fill ourselves; we want a more solid Substance to repair us. A Man, starved with Hunger, would be very simple to look out rather a gay Garment, than a good Meal: We are to look after that whereof we have most Need: As we have it in our ordinary Prayers, Gloria in excel/is Deo, et in terra fax hominibus; * n Glory be to God on * High, and in Earth Peace, &V.' We are in great Want of Beauty, Health, Wisdom, Virtue, and such-like essential Qualities: Exterior Ornaments should be looked after, when we have made Provision for necessary Things. Theology treats amply, and more pertinently of this

* Subject, but I am not much versed in it.

Chrysippus

■■".• - "St. luh, chap. ii. ver. 14.

Chrysippus and Diogenes 0 were the first, and the stoutest Philosophers Champions for the Contempt of Glory; and wJxprtacbed maintained, ' That, of all Pleasures, there up the Con- « was none more dangerous, nor more to be temf t of Glory. taVoided, than that which proceeds from the * Approbation of others.' And, in Truth, Experience makes us sensible of its very hurtful Treachery. There is nothing that so much poisons Princes, as Flattery, nor any Thing whereby wicked Men more easily obtain Credit with them: Nor is there any Pandarism so proper, and so often made Use of, to corrupt the Chastity of Women, as to wheedle and entertain them with their own Praises. The first Charm the Syrens made use of to inveigle Ulyfes, is of this Nature.

Those Philosophers said, « That all the Glory of the 'World was not worth an understanding Man's holding •' out his Finger to obtain it:

Gloria quantalibet quid erit, si Gloria tantum est'?

i. e.

What's Glory in the high'st Degree, If it no more but Glory be?

I fay, That alone: For it often brings several Corstmodi- Glory to be al°ng with it, for which it may be de-

uurtedsor the sired: It acquires us Good-will, and renders Advantages it us less subject and exposed to the Injuries of ■ others, and the like. It was also one of the principal Doctrines of Epicurus; for this Precept of his Sect, Live obscurely, that forbids Men to incumber themselves with Offices and public Negociations, does also, necessarily, presuppose a Contempt of Glory, which is the

World's Approbation of those Actions we produce to Light. He that bids us conceal ourselves, and to have no other Concern but for ourselves, and that will not have us known to others, would much less have us honoured and glorified. He advises Idomeneus also, * not, ■ in any fort, to regulate his Actions by the common

* Reputation or Opinion, except it be to avoid the other

* accidental Inconveniences, which the Contempt of Men

* might bring upon him.'

Those Discourses are, in my Opinion, very true and rational; but we are, I know not how, of a Proof that Etwofold Nature, which is the Cause, that picunw wmed what we believe, we do not believe, and Glt">' cannot disengage ourselves from what we condemn. Let us see the last dying Words of Epicurus % they are great, and worthy of such a Philosopher, and yet they carry some Marks of the Recommendation of his Name, and of that Humour he had decried by his Precepts. Here is a Letter that he dictated a little before his last Gasp'.

Epicurus to Hermachus, Greeting.

* TT7HILST I was passing over the happy, and '\\ the last Day of my Life, I writ this; but, at

* the fame Time, was afflicted with such a Pain in my

* Bladder and Bowels, that nothing can be greater: But

* it was recompensed with the Pleasure, which the Re

* membrance of my Inventions and Doctrines suggested

* to my Soul. Now, as the Affection thou hast ever

* had, from thy Infancy, for me, and Philosophy does c require •, take upon thee the Protection of Metrodorus's

* Children.'

So much for his Letter. And that which makes me interpret, that the Pleasure, be fays, he felt in his Soul, concerning his Inventions, has some Reference to the Reputation he hoped for after his Death, is the Disposition of his Will. In which he gives Order, < That 'Amino